EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MACRAMÉ

Macrame is believed to have originated in the 13th century with Arab weavers, and has made a bigger comeback in 2015 than Hilary Duff (shoutout to everyone who saw my Hilary Duff appreciation tweet the other day). It is a form of textile-making that requires a sequence of knotting techniques. It's likey that you've seen some macrame on Pinterest (feel free to browse my macrame board above) and so I'm here, as always, to break this down for you and explain everything you need to know about macrame.

Disclaimer: 'Macrame' should be spelled 'macramé', but shall be spelled 'macrame' for the entirity of this post as I don't know the keyboard shortcut for an accented 'e'. #StayInSchoolKids

What materials do I need to do macrame?
If you want to make a colourful creation, you can get metres and metres of macrame string, in an abundance of colours, for a very cheap price on Ebay. But if you have some twine or even thin rope hanging around the house, that works perfectly fine and gives a traditional look. As for the anchor, shall we say, of your macrame, doweling is great, (or copper piping for an on-trend look, as shown in the image above). But, again, if you just want to give it a quick go and don't have all the equipment, a pencil will do just fine.

Ways to display your macrame creations
Traditional wall hangings are a great starting point as you can stick with a small manageable one, or go big with a huge one. Curtains or window dressings seem like the next logical step in your macrame journey as these are essentially humongous wall hangings but with a curtain pole as your, what I previously coined, 'anchor'. But plant hangers can be pretty simple and look really fresh - there's a great tutorial here.

Types of knot
Macrame is pretty simple and once you get a few knots in your brain, you're pretty much good to go and you can get creative and do your own thing. Here's a list of some essential knots, use the blogs listed in the next paragraph for images and guides (I thought I'd leave that to the experts):
- Larks head knot
- Double half hitch (plus 'diagonal double half hitch')
- Square knot (plus 'alternating square knots' and 'switch knot')

Macrame sites and blogs
- www.modernmacrame.com
- www.free-macrame-patterns.com/learn-macrame
- www.micromacrame.blogspot.co.uk

Ombre and coloured macrame
To update your macrame and bring your designs into the 21st century, you could try ombre-ing your creation (as shown in the image above) by watering down acrylic paint and adding more paint to your water-paint mix as you move to the ends of the thread, thus creating a gradient. You could also try using coloured thread as mentioned above.

Key words in macrame
- Knotting cord: the cord used to make the knot in the stitch.
- Knot-bearing cord: the cord that the knotting cords are wrapped/knotted around.
(The knotting cord and knot-bearing cord can switch and alternate between each stitch)
- Sennit: a set of the same stitch.

So, all that's left to say is - good luck and have fun!

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